Berlin (awp / afp) – German investor sentiment dropped slightly in July, putting a stop to the strong rebound that started in April, as concerns persist over the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the barometer ZEW released Tuesday.
This particularly unstable indicator reached 59.3 points in July, down 4.1 points from June, where it had reached its highest level since 2006.
“The outlook for the German economy has changed little from the previous month,” said Achim Wambach, president of the ZEW.
This drop ends three consecutive months of increases, after a historic plunge by the ZEW in March to -49.5 points, at the height of restrictive measures against the coronavirus pandemic.
It is doing less well than expected by analysts cited by financial service provider Factset, who expected a ZEW up slightly to 65 points.
In the euro zone, the index reached 59.6 points, up slightly by 1 point over a month.
The barometer component measuring the current economic situation is up 2.2 points to -80.9 points.
“Doubts about a V-shaped recovery scenario have grown, and the U-shaped scenario, a slow recovery, has gained supporters,” said Jens-Oliver Niklasch, expert for LBBW.
The German economy is slowly recovering after being weighed down by restrictive measures against the coronavirus pandemic in force between March and May.
After a 2.2% recession in the first quarter, Germany expects for 2020 a 6.3% drop in its gross domestic product (GDP), the largest drop since the start of the statistics in 1970.
For now, the “recovery process is still in its infancy,” warned in its monthly report Monday the German Ministry of Finance.
afp / ol
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